


Roses for No One

by corvid_corporeal



Category: The Wasteland Witches series - Atreyu Addams
Genre: Angst, Gen, M/M, Mutual Pining, One-sided pining, sisterly advise
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-13
Updated: 2017-05-21
Packaged: 2018-10-31 08:49:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10895877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/corvid_corporeal/pseuds/corvid_corporeal
Summary: A collection of drabbles based on the various & layered relationships in TWW. Archive warnings / tags will be adjusted as necessary.





	1. Please Leave a Message After I Blink

**Author's Note:**

> This first drabble focuses on Alex / Morgan.

Trinity was technically the first person to say anything. Unless you counted Bones, and Alex didn't. 

Neither Alex nor Bones had ever said Morgan's name, which seemed important somehow. Therefore, when it came down to it, Trinity was the only one who could be considered.

And wasn't that just the biggest laugh of all? He couldn't be annoyed with her because it was so very a _Trinity_ thing to do. How easily she assumed the role of Big Sister while resenting it at the same time. She only had herself to blame.

 

The sun had been setting. Alex remembered the way the air felt that night: warm with a slight chill just underneath. Enough to make a light coat or a blanket necessary. Indeed, as the afternoon had progressed into evening, more and more people had curled up on the lounge chairs with a blanket around their shoulders. Now that the conversation surrounding some such plot or other had ended, the crowd was slowly dissipating. Conversations carried on down the stairs, friends waved goodbye to other friends and carried on home, wherever that was.

Alex had remained in his seat, pretending to watch the crowd down below, how the people moved like a wave through the streets and around the buildings, swaying and pulsing like a single practiced body. He allowed himself to believe that he wasn't really looking for a familiar scowl, a head of long, dark hair. He allowed himself to pretend that it didn't bother him that Morgan hadn't shown up, that the ache between this ribs and around his heart was nothing at all but a trifle to be ignored.

He'd been alone and mostly okay with that, distracted enough that he didn't hear Trinity coming up behind him and didn't know she was there at all until she sat down on the edge of the roof beside him and dangled her legs over the city below.

She had that energy about her, that concerned, know-it-all buzz. She'd had it for days now. Alex had managed to avoid her, if not her meaningful across-the-room looks. He hadn't wanted to hear what she was going to say, and felt as if he could already have that conversation without her needing to be present to say her lines. Alex knew everything that Trinity would say. 

Now, cornered, Alex knew there was no escape. He'd was at the end of the line and knew when to give up.

"Hey," said Alex, not looking at her. He could feel her faint smile, her searching eyes. 

"Hey yourself. Waiting for someone?"

Alex shifted uncomfortably and grew annoyed with himself for the tell. He shrugged a shoulder and said honestly, "Not really." 

"So you aren't hoping to see Morgan down there?" Trinity pointed her chin toward the crowd below.

Alex shifted again, then turned his head with a tilt, meeting her gaze. "I hope to see him," he agreed. "But I'm not waiting for him. He isn't coming, I know that."

Trinity sighed, and Alex frowned at her impatiently. "Just come out and say it. I know you want to."

Trinity's eyebrows lifted in a slow, indignant arc. It was not unsimilar to the expression that often came over Abigail's face when someone annoyed her. But Trinity was easier, and after a moment indignation gave way to a cool look and she said, "I think you're the one who has something to say."

Alex's lips thinned, and he breathed in slow through his nose. He'd wanted to avoid this conversation and instead he'd carved a path right through it with his irritability. Infuriating, too, was the sense that he was being _too sensitive_ , and it was Morgan's fault. Alex's heart had become a bruised fruit and the lightest pressure hurt terribly. 

"You don't approve," said Alex slowly. "Of Morgan. Of me and Morgan." 

Trinity was quiet a moment. Then she shrugged her shoulder. Her hands were folded in her lap, small and pale against the whipped cream of her skirt. "I don't not approve," she said. When Alex merely stared hard at her, she amended, "Exactly. I just..." Her gaze shifted sideways, as if she might find Morgan somewhere in the empty space. Alex resisted the urge to look too. 

"I'm worried for you," said Trinity. 

It wasn't what he'd expected. He blinked at her, face blank with surprise. "It's not-" He meant to say it wasn't like that. He and Morgan weren't anything she had to worry about because he and Morgan weren't really anything. Yet he couldn't make himself say the words. His mouth closed, the ache around his heart giving a low throb. 

Trinity lay her hand on Alex's arm, as if she knew what he was thinking, which she probably did. 

"You're magic, Alex. You know that?" 

Alex laughed, startled. Trinity's expression was serious around a faint smile. "You are. You've got your heart tattooed on your sleeve, it's hard to miss. And Morgan..." She paused, considering her next words with care. "I don't know him well enough to approve or not approve. That man looks and acts like a knife, and I'm worried he doesn't know how to aim. Whether he means to or not-" 

She stopped when Alex held up a hand, lips still parted for her next words. Alex couldn't bear to hear her finish that sentence. He knew she was likely right. He shook his head, unable to meet her eyes. "I get it," he said seriously. I know what you're saying." 

Trinity waited, but Alex had nothing else to say. There were no words that would make her feel better. There were no words that could make himself feel better, either. Realizing he would not continue, she smiled softly and squeezed his arm. She rose to her feet, brushed her palms down the back of her skirt, and stepped back. "Just... if you need... something, don't disappear. We're here for you." 

Trinity didn't stay, perhaps knowing he wouldn't say anything and not wanting to force him to. Alex watched her cross the roof to the door that lead to the stairs, and then she was gone. 

Alex returned to the view of the city, but he felt more disquieted than ever before.


	2. Greed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The fault lay with greed. (Alex / Morgan)

Loving Morgan felt like the most dangerous thing to Alex. Ridiculous in its predictability. Laughable for how addictive the poison was. 

He was person who avoided drama at all costs. Relationships had never appealed to him. No -- that's not quite true. No one he'd ever been with had ever appealed to him. He had a scent for disaster. He could smell gun powder on the air moments before the person he'd slept with was about to become too much work. He silently tutted his friends, who fell in and out of love quickly and easily. Who continued to remain in toxic situations no matter how obvious the sign pointing toward "EMERGENCY EXIT" became. He would never be one of those people, because no one was worth it. Love may be nice, but love did not keep you sustained. Love could, and often did, sting. No one was worth what would come next. 

So, to ponder on his feelings for Morgan was like was like agreeably subjecting himself to ironic self deprivation. 

Loving Morgan felt like the most dangerous thing he had ever done or would ever do. It was like riding on the back of a motorcycle at top speed with no helmet, hanging off the back like a mindless, drunken loon. 

He could not bring himself to admit it. Nor could he bring himself to admit that he was overlooking something that shouldn't be missed: Morgan would not allow himself to be happy. How he felt about Alex was irrelevant because he would never act on it. Alex knew it was time to go. The EMERGENCY EXIT sign was flashing red. Warning bells were screaming.

And yet. 

Morgan had only to send him a long look for Alex's traitorous, stupid heart to start stuttering, aching with a deep pain and desire. 

He had only to kiss him, and Alex was done. All arguments swallowed themselves and disappeared. Alex's breath would fail him, spinning webs in his throat. Logic brain would fog over and he'd see in gossamer for the next few hours. 

He had become the very person he'd been avoiding for years. 

Bitterly, Alex recalled something he used to hear as a child. A phrase adults would tell children that the same children grew up to forget. It came to him now. 

"Be careful what you wish for."

Many a time Alex had ached for something he had thought he'd wanted. Only now, it felt like a bruise that would never go away no matter what he did. 

In the end, he'd gotten what he'd wanted. How could he have known it would turn into something he shouldn't have? Something that wasn't enough. 

When it came right down to it, the fault lay with greed. Alex had grown greedy, and it had all exploded in his face. 

He thought he'd only wanted Morgan to touch him. Now he wanted Morgan to love him.


End file.
